Dave2112
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As a follow-up to my Return of the Jedi post, I thought I'd bring fans a few things they might not know about the most misunderstood film in the saga.
- Following Yoda's death, the script had a longer conversation between Luke and Ben's shade, in which he explains that he entrusted his brother Owen with raising Luke as an adopted "nephew". The dialog remained in the novelization and became part of Star Wars lore for a long time, until Episode II established Owen as Anakin's stepbrother.
- The Imperial capital, the city-planet of Had Abbadon, appeared in the rough draft. Around the planet orbited two half-finished Death Stars and the Green Moon, named Jus-Endor, an unspoiled ecosystem in the early stages of habitational clearing. Below the surface was Palpatine's throne room, in the center of a lake of lava. The concept was that his throne would be below everything that had been built over the centuries, situated far enough down to have lava.
- Femi Taylor, the actress who portrayed Oola (Jabba's Twi-Lek dancing girl) was still fit enough to reprise her role 15 years later for the Special Edition, to reshoot a scene where we actually see her in the Rancor pit.
- In the script's second draft, an Admiral "Ackbar" appears and is described as a "Blue-skinned near-human". Grand Admiral Prawn?
- Known only to readers of the novelization, the bad-rap Ewoks are actually "vicious little carnivores".
- At one point, as ROTJ was the only film with no major-character deaths, screenwriter Lawrence Kasden suggested that Luke die and Leia take his place as central character. This was seriously considered.
- Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac pit in later novels in the Expanded Universe...due to massive fan input and outcry.
- The pilot and gunner of the AT-ST that Chewie captures are played by director Richard Marquand and co-producer Robert Watts
- The original title was "Revenge of the Jedi". You knew that. What you may not have known is the real reason. Contrary to the many theories that have become popular over the years, it was not a re-think of a Jedi's intentions that led to the title change. "Revenge" was a bogus title from the start. Lucas: "The title was always intended to be Return of the Jedi, but we made it under the code name Revenge of the Jedi to smoke out bootleggers and such. Unfortunatly, Fox started promoting the film before we could tell them not to use the title." Also, contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to Luke bringing back the Jedi order, but to Vader returning as Anakin...returning to his Jedi heritage, fulfilling the prophecy.
- The Ewoks almost never happened. The end scenes were to originally contain Wookies. Even the name Ewok is practically pig-Latin for Wookie.
- Stuntwoman Tracy eddon wore the C-3PO suit for the tumble off the sail barge. She also donned the gold bikini to swing with Mark Hamill's double onto the escaping skiff.
- The radiating shafts making up the floor of the Death Star II's reactor core are actually 1,500 fishing rods.
- Some of the coolest ships taken for granted now are only seen in ROTJ...the B-Wing, A-Wing, Lambda-class shuttle and TIE Interceptor. Side note...the two rebel fighters don't really look like the letters they represent, they were labelled "A-Fighter" and "B-Fighter" during development.
- The full-sized model of the Millenium Falcon was built for The Empire Strikes Back and was to be reused for ROTJ. Alas, it's only scene was the deleted sandstorm sequence. The one seen in the rebel hangar is a matte painting.
- In the original draft, Luke is held prisoner on an island in a sea of lava. Obi-Wan appears in the flesh, explaining that he has returned to help defeat Palpatine. Yoda also appears, but only as a spirit, stating that he will do what he can from the Netherworld. The Emperor shoots Force Lightning at Obi-Wan and Luke raises an invisible shield to block it. Whenever the shild goes up, Yoda's image flashes across it. Lucas dropped this scenario, deciding it would be more powerful for Luke to face Vader on his own. It would have also gone counterpoint to Obi-Wan's warning to Luke in ESB that if he Luke chose to face Vader, he could not interfere.
- The climax of the novelization contains a great concept: Moff Jerjerrod, realizing that the fight is lost, orders his Death Star to fire on Endor in a last act of defiance. Naturally, the station blows up at the last second in an echo of A New Hope.
- In the script's second draft, Jabba boasts about killing many Jedi. The novelization still contained Jabba's best line (that I wish they'd kept in): "I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something."
😎
- Following Yoda's death, the script had a longer conversation between Luke and Ben's shade, in which he explains that he entrusted his brother Owen with raising Luke as an adopted "nephew". The dialog remained in the novelization and became part of Star Wars lore for a long time, until Episode II established Owen as Anakin's stepbrother.
- The Imperial capital, the city-planet of Had Abbadon, appeared in the rough draft. Around the planet orbited two half-finished Death Stars and the Green Moon, named Jus-Endor, an unspoiled ecosystem in the early stages of habitational clearing. Below the surface was Palpatine's throne room, in the center of a lake of lava. The concept was that his throne would be below everything that had been built over the centuries, situated far enough down to have lava.
- Femi Taylor, the actress who portrayed Oola (Jabba's Twi-Lek dancing girl) was still fit enough to reprise her role 15 years later for the Special Edition, to reshoot a scene where we actually see her in the Rancor pit.
- In the script's second draft, an Admiral "Ackbar" appears and is described as a "Blue-skinned near-human". Grand Admiral Prawn?
- Known only to readers of the novelization, the bad-rap Ewoks are actually "vicious little carnivores".
- At one point, as ROTJ was the only film with no major-character deaths, screenwriter Lawrence Kasden suggested that Luke die and Leia take his place as central character. This was seriously considered.
- Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac pit in later novels in the Expanded Universe...due to massive fan input and outcry.
- The pilot and gunner of the AT-ST that Chewie captures are played by director Richard Marquand and co-producer Robert Watts
- The original title was "Revenge of the Jedi". You knew that. What you may not have known is the real reason. Contrary to the many theories that have become popular over the years, it was not a re-think of a Jedi's intentions that led to the title change. "Revenge" was a bogus title from the start. Lucas: "The title was always intended to be Return of the Jedi, but we made it under the code name Revenge of the Jedi to smoke out bootleggers and such. Unfortunatly, Fox started promoting the film before we could tell them not to use the title." Also, contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to Luke bringing back the Jedi order, but to Vader returning as Anakin...returning to his Jedi heritage, fulfilling the prophecy.
- The Ewoks almost never happened. The end scenes were to originally contain Wookies. Even the name Ewok is practically pig-Latin for Wookie.
- Stuntwoman Tracy eddon wore the C-3PO suit for the tumble off the sail barge. She also donned the gold bikini to swing with Mark Hamill's double onto the escaping skiff.
- The radiating shafts making up the floor of the Death Star II's reactor core are actually 1,500 fishing rods.
- Some of the coolest ships taken for granted now are only seen in ROTJ...the B-Wing, A-Wing, Lambda-class shuttle and TIE Interceptor. Side note...the two rebel fighters don't really look like the letters they represent, they were labelled "A-Fighter" and "B-Fighter" during development.
- The full-sized model of the Millenium Falcon was built for The Empire Strikes Back and was to be reused for ROTJ. Alas, it's only scene was the deleted sandstorm sequence. The one seen in the rebel hangar is a matte painting.
- In the original draft, Luke is held prisoner on an island in a sea of lava. Obi-Wan appears in the flesh, explaining that he has returned to help defeat Palpatine. Yoda also appears, but only as a spirit, stating that he will do what he can from the Netherworld. The Emperor shoots Force Lightning at Obi-Wan and Luke raises an invisible shield to block it. Whenever the shild goes up, Yoda's image flashes across it. Lucas dropped this scenario, deciding it would be more powerful for Luke to face Vader on his own. It would have also gone counterpoint to Obi-Wan's warning to Luke in ESB that if he Luke chose to face Vader, he could not interfere.
- The climax of the novelization contains a great concept: Moff Jerjerrod, realizing that the fight is lost, orders his Death Star to fire on Endor in a last act of defiance. Naturally, the station blows up at the last second in an echo of A New Hope.
- In the script's second draft, Jabba boasts about killing many Jedi. The novelization still contained Jabba's best line (that I wish they'd kept in): "I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something."
😎
